Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1887-06-28
r..a Height of Waves.

r-anv experiments have been made 10
measurc the height of waves in all condi-
tions of weather. One authority COOS
tigh as sixty-four feet and another as
low as fac feet, giving it as his reason
that the penetrating power of wind can
not reach below that depth. OF this
philosopher it may be presumed that he
was martyr to sea- sickness, and that
he must have conten.ed himself with
making his calculations in his study.
On the other hand, height of sixty
four feet is almost as absurd, though it
is more in correspondence than five feet
can possibly be with our conception OF
the altitude of the majestic surges
which roll under the impulse OF storms
Of wind along the surface of the great
oceans. 1t is true that the earthquake
wave has been known to rise sixty feet;
vet surges of this kind are happily scarce
since when they occur they are not only
in the habit of razing whole towns upon
the coast line where they break, but of
carving some of the vessels they may
encounter at anchor in the neighbor-
hood to the distance of days walk in
land. Practical experience, however,
will look with suspicion upon most of
the scientific theories touching the al
ttude and velocity of the waves. Prof.
Airys table couples speed with dimen-
ensions, and, as a sample of his calcula-
tions. it may be shown that wave
100, 900 feet in breadth will travel at
the rate of 533. 80 per second in water
that is 10, 900 feet deep. This is pos
sible but it is difficult to accept such
conclusions as exact. At all events,
there is nothing more deceive than
the height of waves. The tallest seas
in the world run off Cape Horn, where,
whether the wind blows east or west.
they have holiday ground within a
belt Of eight or ten degrees that COM
passes the globe without the interven-
ton of break of land. Any man who
has run, say, before a strong westerly
gale round the Horn will know the
magnitude of the sea, which follows his
ship. Viewed from the stern, when
the vessel sinks in the trough, the on
coming sea that is about to underrun
the ship, and lift her soaring to the fly
ing heavens will seem to heave its rush
ing summit to the height of the mizzen.
top; but when tine summit is gained by
the observer, and the waves viewed
from there, it will be seen that those
crests, which from the deck looked a
long way up, will now appear to be e
long way down. 1t is common shore
going phrase that the seas run noun
tains high. The idea implied is not
very generally accepted by sailors,
though the term may be sometimes
used by them for convenience. The
truth is, if waves were as tall as they
are popularity supposed to be, no ship
could by any possibility live in them,
They are lofty to the fancy, because at
sea they are usually surveyed from low
free boards. 70 a spectator on a
steamer, with sixfoot height of side,
an Atlantic or Pacific surge would nee
essarily appear as mountain compared
| to the aspect it would take, from the
| deck of an old line of battle ship. with
thirty foot dip, or from one of these
lofty, glazed. castellated structures
which In former times took six mouths
to jog soberly from the Thames to the
| Hooghly london Telegraph.